NCAA tournament brings out the best in college basketball

The analysis of the regular season no longer applies in the postseason, as shown by the downfall of higher-seeded teams on the first two days of the tournament.

North Dakota State's Taylor Braun encourages fans to make some noise after scoring a basket during the Bison's upset victory over Oklahoma in the second round of the NCAA tournament Thursday.
(Elaine Thompson / Associated Press / March 20, 2014)

Chris Dufresne

11:41 p.m. EDT, March 21, 2014

SPOKANE, Wash. — Taylor Braun tried to pull everyone's leg after North Dakota State pulled off Thursday's West regional semi-stunner against Oklahoma.

"Honestly," the Bison's star deadpanned at the postgame news conference at Spokane Arena, "I don't know what all the hype is about, the NCAA tournament."

What happened during the first two days of the NCAA tournament was no joke to higher seeded teams that got sent home with upset stomachs.

Only a free-throw choke job by North Carolina State against Saint Louis prevented all No. 12-seeded schools from winning on the first full day.

We probably should have seen it coming Wednesday night when Tennessee needed a dramatic overtime win over Iowa just to make the field of 64.

That led to four overtime games Thursday in the fastest start to a sporting event since last year's Indy 500.

The worst part of college basketball is the seemingly endless months of over-analytic prattle over rankings, Ratings Percentage Index, conference strength, all crescendoing toward the incessantly annoying finale of "perceived seeding injustices."

The best part is now.

The worst part is TV experts who coached (or played) at elite colleges lobbying for the 11th-placed team in the Big 12 getting a bid over a mid-major runner-up.